- In the equity market, the global sell-off geared up on Wednesday with investors dumping risky assets on the back of increased US election uncertainty
- Safe haven currencies stood out as the best performers in overnight trading as investors fled risky assets
- CHF and JPY rose against the dollar in overnight trading
- EUR/CHF has tumbled roughly 1% over the last 24 hours, moving below the key 1.08 threshold, which will most likely trigger SNB intervention
- CHF also strengthened substantially against the USD, with USD/CHF falling below 0.97 for the first time since early October
- On the downside, the currency pair is getting closer to the key support of 0.9650
The US dollar extended losses on Wednesday on the back of recent developments in Hillary Clinton’s email story. Looking at the equity and FX markets, global investors did not welcome the news. After falling 0.70% on Tuesday, the dollar index fell another 0.10% in Tokyo as it hit 97.61. The greenback was down 0.12% against the single currency, 0.21% against the Swedish krona and 0.10% against the NOK. Safe haven currencies stood out as the best performers in overnight trading as investors fled risky assets. The Swiss franc and Japanese yen rose 0.30% against the dollar in overnight trading. USD/JPY slid 1.50% over the last two day, falling from 105.10 to 103.55, as traders took shelter in the Japanese currency ahead of next week's US election.
The Swiss franc was in strong demand yesterday as uncertainty reached a new peak. EUR/CHF has tumbled roughly 1% over the last 24 hours, moving below the key 1.08 threshold, which will most likely trigger fresh SNB intervention. CHF also strengthened substantially against the USD, with USD/CHF falling below 0.97 for the first time since early October. On the downside, the currency pair is getting closer to the key support that stands at around 0.9650 (low from early October).
Nevertheless, the best performer within the G10 complex was the New Zealand dollar which got a fresh boost yesterday evening amid a better-than-expected job report. Indeed, the unemployment rate fell to 4.9% - the lowest level since Q1 2009 - in the third quarter (versus 5.1% consensus), while the previous quarter’s figure was downwardly revised to 5%. NZD/USD rose 0.85% to 0.7245 and is on its way to test the next resistance that lies at 0.7266 (high from October 20th). On the downside, the closest support stands at 0.7110 (multi lows). On the medium-term, the Kiwi is still trading within its multi-month uptrend channel, even though it has tried several times to escape to the downside. However, for now the positive momentum is still there.
In the equity market, the global sell-off geared up on Wednesday as investors dumped risky assets as uncertainty rose another notch. Asian equities fell across the board with the Nikkei down 1.76%, while the Shanghai Composite slid 0.63%. In Europe, equity futures are broadly trading in negative territory with the Footsie and DAX down 0.39% and 0.79% respectively. Finally, US futures are also blinking red on the screen as S&P500 futures were down 0.38% and the Dow Jones fell 1.13%.